Sorry again for the drunk posting last night. IACE is on 41st. between 5th and Mad. You have to order the pass online at least one week before you're leaving and you can pick it up in Manhattan for no charge or it's like $20 more for FedEx. Their office is near my work so I opted to pick up.

Hey Kuro - I ordered it online from japanrailpass.com. They overnighted it here.

The only thing I need is travel insurance, which I am strongly considering. Although, apparently they pay you back after the fact.

I have everything booked, and we leave in a week and a half. I am extremely excited and a bit nervous. The arrival time has me a little worried. We land there at 10:15pm at Haneda Airport. The whole getting to the hotel at that time of night (it'll probably be 11pm+ by the time we get our bags and get through security, and what not).

Why? I didn't get any. Never do. You really think you're gonna end up in a hospital over there?

The exchange rate is really starting to suck right now. If you're gonna bring a credit card it's better if it's a Visa and you gotta watch the banks cause they charge an exchange fee that's a little more than just changing cash at the airport. I tried not to use my card until just about the very end of the trip.

OK, I came into Narita so I'm not sure what's up with Haneda but I do know there's subways and a monorail to the JR line from there. When you exchange your order for the rail pass at the JR office I'm sure they'll help you find the right train to where you're going. They're really nice and they have someone who speaks English in that office. Trust me, the baggage claim at Narita was easy so I imagine you'll have no problem getting out.

Whatever you do try NOT to take a taxi. They're cool, the door automatically opens and closes, but it's really expensive. Also, you don't have to tip in restaurants. They leave the check on your table, you take it to the front and pay.

Cool, thanks Kuro. I am pretty nervous and excited at the same time. I'm leaving on Sunday.

On the crappy exchange rate, I feel completely shafted. I feel a bit screwed with the dollar to yen exchange rate my bank hit me with. They exchanged it at 74 Yen to the Dollar as a way of masking their exchange fee. On $2200, they wound up keeping about $113 (I think) when all was said and done.

But, I have Yen on hand, so I guess that saves me one thing to do when I get there. I'll have two credit cards with me, and an ATM card. I should be fine with funds. (I'll just have to lick my financial wounds when I get back to the US in two weeks).

I can't believe that all these years I have wanted to go to Japan, and it's finally here. I will be in Tokyo on Monday. Thanks for your advice over the past few weeks. :)

My sister is all like "We should figure out how to get by on two meals a day in Tokyo."
Sorry, I eat like a sumo.

LUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hmm i think they moved the gundam statue for the earthquakes (think its back by now) but if the Gundam Museum is around tokyo its a must see!

I only got like Tuesday and Wednesday in Tokyo (getting into Tokyo at 10:15PM Monday night), before moving onto Hakone on Thursday. I will certainly stop in Akihabara, Shibuya, Asakusa. Still figuring out what else to do. We have a book, and 14.5 hours on a nonstop flight to read and map out our destination and our wish list. I plan on stopping in a Maid Cafe. I am sure my sis is going to be all like "WTF?!?!"

I am taking my laptop, although, I might not be able to move the iPhone photos to the netbook. I will have my 8MP digital camera with a brand new 32GB SDHC card I just got this week.

Hopefully, I will have some wifi along the way, so I can make the: "GodWhomIsMike's Japan Trip Photo Thread (I'm there now w00t!!!)"

I been toying with enrolling in a Computer Science PHD program (graduation ceremony for my Master's Degree was yesterday, and I graduated with a MS in Computer Science this past January).

Maybe I will dual a PHD and do a minor or do an Associates program in Japanese at the same time. I think it would be cool to be a computer scientist in Japan, or at a minimum teach Computer Science at a University in Kyoto or Tokyo. I just finished a semester teaching Computer Science at a University in Manhattan in the evenings this past Spring semester.